He that respects the squid is wise, and shall avoid being consumed by it, yet will find joy in its existence.

I need to go and rip some spines out.

I have a longer post on this issue brewing in my head, but it may turn out to be the sort of thing that I end up not posting because it's too inflammatory and risks burning the already quite bombed-out remains of my bridges with the right-leaning folks in the webcomics community, both among the readership and among my cartooning colleagues*). For now, though, allow me to swear profusely at fucking pigheaded bigoted motherfuckers like the dickwads who got on Raed-in-the-Middle's case at JFK airport:

One of the two men who approached me first, Inspector Harris, asked for my id card and boarding pass. I gave him my boarding pass and driver's license. He said "people are feeling offended because of your t-shirt". I looked at my t-shirt: I was wearing my shirt which states in both Arabic and English "we will not be silent". You can take a look at it in this picture taken during our Jordan meetings with Iraqi MPs. I said "I am very sorry if I offended anyone, I didnt know that this t-shirt will be offensive". He asked me if I had any other T-shirts to put on, and I told him that I had checked in all of my bags and I asked him "why do you want me to take off my t-shirt? Isn't it my constitutional right to express myself in this way?" The second man in a greenish suit interfered and said "people here in the US don't understand these things about constitutional rights". So I answered him "I live in the US, and I understand it is my right to wear this t-shirt".

Then I once again asked the three of them : "How come you are asking me to change my t-shirt? Isn't this my constitutional right to wear it? I am ready to change it if you tell me why I should. Do you have an order against Arabic t-shirts? Is there such a law against Arabic script?" so inspector Harris answered "you can't wear a t-shirt with Arabic script and come to an airport. It is like wearing a t-shirt that reads "I am a robber" and going to a bank". I said "but the message on my t-shirt is not offensive, it just says "we will not be silent". I got this t-shirt from Washington DC. There are more than a 1000 t-shirts printed with the same slogan, you can google them or email them at wewillnotbesilent@gmail.com . It is printed in many other languages: Arabic, Farsi, Spanish, English, etc." Inspector Harris said: "We cant make sure that your t-shirt means we will not be silent, we don't have a translator. Maybe it means something else". I said: "But as you can see, the statement is in both Arabic and English". He said "maybe it is not the same message". So based on the fact that Jet Blue doesn't have a translator, anything in Arabic is suspicious because maybe it'll mean something bad!

[...The woman from Jet Blue] asked, what kind of t-shirts do you like. Should I get you an "I heart new york t-shirt?". So Mr. Harmon said "No, we shouldn't ask him to go from one extreme to another". I asked mr. harmon why does he assume I hate new york if I had some Arabic script on my t-shirt, but he didn't answer.

Bastards. Stinking, racist, wilfully ignorant, small-minded, disgusting, cowardly swine. May they squirm in hell. Fuck them back to front and side-ways and then fuck them again.

Feeling better now, I think. Via LGF Watch who have been documenting the end of what I thought was our civilisation in excruciating, red-mist-inducing detail.

*)Though frankly? "This website is a wingnut-free zone" sounds better to me with each passing day.